1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a system and method for providing and processing or using a card associated to its own services and associated to other cards with their own services, and, in particular, to a system and method for overloading an existing card so that services of the existing card and services for other cards may be selectively or programmatically processed or used by having to only use the existing card. Still particularly, the present invention relates to a server system, such as a remote server or a local server, that is set up and provides the overloading feature for the existing card wherein the existing card has its own service and is overloaded with the services of other cards.
2. Description of the Related Art
A person may typically carry a various number of cards, such as credit cards, driver""s license card, membership cards, etc., with him or her. However, the carrying of so many cards may be quite cumbersome and bulky for a person. For example, the large number of cards may cause a person""s wallet to bulge. Also, the tasks of managing and tracking so many cards may become quite a hassle or burden.
Various types of universal cards or smart cards have been developed to integrate convenience and usability of multiple cards of a user into a single card. For these types of universal cards or smart cards, a generic universal card or generic smart card is provided, and the card services from all the different cards that a person owns is associated and programmed to the single universal card or smart card. The single generic card is generally used to integrate card services from various cards, and the card itself has no other functions or inherent operations. Some of these universal cards or smart cards require changing, updating, and/or maintaining of stored data on the cards themselves or may require the informing of the card service providers of the various cards regarding the integration of the cards to the universal card or smart card. Furthermore, some of these universal cards or smart cards require a power source to maintain, store, and/or display the data on the card. U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,232 to Taylor; U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,055 to Kashkashian Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,027 to McNeely et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,523 to Gatto; U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,936 to Opel; U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,311 to Hennige; U.S. Pat. No. 5,477,040 to Lalonde provide examples of such universal cards or smart cards.
However, the problem with universal cards or smart cards is that they require the providing of the additional generic cards that are not themselves inherently functional or operational cards. For authentication purposes, a vendor or business establishment may not simply accept the universal card or smart card on its face value and may still require seeing and verifying the existence of the actual, real card itself that has been integrated into the universal card or smart card. This requirement defeats one of the main purposes of having a universal card or smart card since the person would still have to carry the cards that were integrated into the single universal card or smart card in the event of an authentication or verification request.
It would therefore be advantageous and desirable to provide a system and method for overloading an existing card having its own card service with at least one other card service of at least one other card and to avoid having to provide an additional generic card with no further function or operation to be used as the integrated card. It would also be advantageous and desirable to provide an overloaded card having its own card service that is able to act as a default card service and also having card services from other cards that are able to be accessed and used as well. It would further be advantageous and desirable to provide an overloaded existing card that does not require the changing, updating, and/or maintaining of stored data on the card itself or that does not require the informing of the card service providers of the various cards being integrated to the overloaded card. It would still further be advantageous and desirable to provide an overloaded existing card that does not itself have to be modified in any way and that does not require any power source for maintaining, storing, or displaying the data on the card.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a system and method for overloading an existing card having its own card service with at least one other card service of at least one other card and to avoid having to provide an additional generic card with no further function or operation to be used as the integrated card.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an overloaded card having its own card service that is able to act as a default card service and also having card services from other cards that are able to be accessed and used as well.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an overloaded existing card that does not require the changing, updating, and/or maintaining of stored data on the card itself or that does not require the informing of the card service providers of the various cards being integrated to the overloaded card.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an overloaded existing card that does not itself have to be modified in any way and that does not require any power source for maintaining, storing, or displaying the data on the card.
The foregoing objects are achieved as is now described. A system and method of providing and using an overloaded card with overloaded card services. A card terminal is able to read an existing or overloaded card. A server system is coupled in communications to the card terminal wherein the overloaded card services are set up and provided by the server system. An existing card having an associated card service that is used by a card user is provided. The card terminal reads the existing card, and the server system determines whether the existing card is to be overloaded with at least one other card service of at least one other card. The existing card is provided and used with only the associated card service if the existing card is not to be overloaded with at least one other service of at least one other card. The server system is set up so that the existing card is the overloaded card with the overloaded card services and at least one other service of at least one other card is associated to the existing card if the existing card is to be overloaded with at least one other service of at least one other card. The existing card is provided and used as the overloaded card with the overloaded services which include the associated card service and at least one service if the existing card is to be overloaded with at least one other service of at least one other card.
The above as well as additional objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.